BP.Net Weightloss CHALLENGE

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Originally Posted by AzureN1ght

I'm not sure where I'd go for the water-testing...at the very least, my University gym doesn't have it and the gym I use when I go home doesn't, either.

The scale I use gives me my total weight, my BMR (basal metabolic rate. ie: how many calories I burn per day just on body processes), my water percentage, my muscle mass percentage and my fat percentage.

The makers of the scale say that it's certainly not AS accurate as the water version for body fat, but it gives a picture. And, if I'm using that same scale to measure it on consistently, I can see the changes in body fat and muscle percentage as I go.

I'm also aware that BMI is inaccurate for some groups of people. Most of the time, those people are body builders or athletes, who have more muscle than the average person. I wouldn't say it's total crap, however... In a country where "64.5 percent of U.S. adults, age 20 years and older, are overweight and 30.5 percent are obese" (American Obesity Association http://www.obesity.org/subs/fastfacts/obesity_US.shtml), I think that it's important to have some sort of standard guideline.

Does that mean that people shouldn't look into things like Body muscle mass and fat percentage measuring? No. I think that one absolutely should look at all aspects when trying to lose weight.

Though I suppose, in the end, it's really about how the individual looks and feels. Someone who's overweight can still get exercise and eat healthily and live a long, healthy life and someone who's thin and (by our country's standards) "looks" healthy, could live a sedentary life and eat only junk food and die of a heart attack in his/her 40's.

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You might want to check this slide presentation out. It explains quite lucidly what science and clinical medicine have to say on the advantages, disadvantages, and reliability of each method of measuring body fat composition. It really filled in a lot of the missing details for me.

I definitely take the cake for weight gain, lol. And about gaining 25lbs of muscle in like a week, impossible. Even with obscene amounts of steroids.

To those who want to lose weight: Just figure out what your maintenence calorie level is, say 2,000. Cut it down to 1,500 a day, drink more water. Keep protein intake pretty high, and make sure your carbs aren't all from sugars. Oatmeal, whole grain, etc are the best. You will lose weight very quick. Maybe a half hour of cardio 4 times a week, and light weight training to preserve muscle mass. Spread the calories out during the day, about 6 small meals. It will keep your metabolism going speedy so your body doesn't slow it down and make losing the weight harder. Sorry if this has been covered, just adding my opinion on proven methods. If you don't lose weight faster than fad diets or supplements, shoot me.

For the ones wanting to gain weight: Get a good routine, check some body building sites. I personally am in the gym 6 days a week on a 3 day split. Chest/Bi's, Back/tri's, Shoulders/legs. I mix it up every month to keep my muscles guessing also. Diet is key, and that's no joke. I take in 4,000 calories a day to grow like I do. Eating every 2 hours. You will want AT LEAST 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight a day. Carbs, fats.... your best friends. And you will also gain a bit of fat in the process, depending how strict your diet is you can minimize it. I personally bulk up, then cut. You'll gain real quick just getting into it. After a few months, assuming the routine and diet are down, supplements will help. Creatine, amino acids, whey protein.



I'm just getting back into bodybuilding after being away at bootcamp and having taken time off for illness and injuries. I'm at 215 right now, probly 13-15% bodyfat because I'm bulking up. I'm going up to 230 before dropping my bodyfat back into the single digits. And that picture of the bodybuilder, it's a photoshop. And not all bodybuilders look like the 300lbs monsters with 2% bodyfat you see on stage.

If you're into bodybuilding--you should check out www.thefitcast.com and sign up for their podcast (if you're a podcast type guy :))! I've become a big Podcast fan and Kevin Larabee, the host, gets some great people on to talk like Cassandra Forsythe, Alywn Cosgrove, John Berardi, John Tate, Craig Ballyntine...etc. It's my favorite Podcast and if you're into fitness/lifting, you'll probably enjoy it :D

And your method for weight loss is VERY close to the one I'm using. I still need to get my exercise on a better schedule, but my eating's going very well on 6 meals a day in caloric deficit. Protein/Fat are my mainstays and all my carbs right now are coming mainly from fruit and vegetables with yogurt and oatmeal thrown in a few times a week.

I don't know what brand of whey protein you use, but I just started using Muscle Milk Light (it's got protein and a few other things) and mixing it with a cup of yogurt and berries to have a meal sometimes. I'm a fan of the taste--do you use something tasty? I'm always interested in opinions about that :D

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Originally Posted by The_Godfather

I definitely take the cake for weight gain, lol. And about gaining 25lbs of muscle in like a week, impossible. Even with obscene amounts of steroids.

To those who want to lose weight: Just figure out what your maintenence calorie level is, say 2,000. Cut it down to 1,500 a day, drink more water. Keep protein intake pretty high, and make sure your carbs aren't all from sugars. Oatmeal, whole grain, etc are the best. You will lose weight very quick. Maybe a half hour of cardio 4 times a week, and light weight training to preserve muscle mass. Spread the calories out during the day, about 6 small meals. It will keep your metabolism going speedy so your body doesn't slow it down and make losing the weight harder. Sorry if this has been covered, just adding my opinion on proven methods. If you don't lose weight faster than fad diets or supplements, shoot me.

For the ones wanting to gain weight: Get a good routine, check some body building sites. I personally am in the gym 6 days a week on a 3 day split. Chest/Bi's, Back/tri's, Shoulders/legs. I mix it up every month to keep my muscles guessing also. Diet is key, and that's no joke. I take in 4,000 calories a day to grow like I do. Eating every 2 hours. You will want AT LEAST 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight a day. Carbs, fats.... your best friends. And you will also gain a bit of fat in the process, depending how strict your diet is you can minimize it. I personally bulk up, then cut. You'll gain real quick just getting into it. After a few months, assuming the routine and diet are down, supplements will help. Creatine, amino acids, whey protein.



I'm just getting back into bodybuilding after being away at bootcamp and having taken time off for illness and injuries. I'm at 215 right now, probly 13-15% bodyfat because I'm bulking up. I'm going up to 230 before dropping my bodyfat back into the single digits. And that picture of the bodybuilder, it's a photoshop. And not all bodybuilders look like the 300lbs monsters with 2% bodyfat you see on stage.

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I use optimum nutrition's whey. I get a 10lb bag for like 50$. Muscle milk is alright stuff, but there is better out there. My favorite shake is a mixture of whey, milk, and oatmeal. Great for packing on mass.

My diet isn't something most people who aren't looking to get big should do. Loads of milk, oatmeal, tuna, pb sandwhiches, pastas, chicken, protein shakes, cottage cheese, mcdonalds, and whatever is within reach to fill my calorie quota.

You using any supplements for fat burn? I know of some good ones, I'm looking into something for when I cut off my fat around winter time.

At what point will I need to worry about calorie intake?

Right now I am converting soft tissue in my legs, shoulders and arms to muscle. I have lost a little fat around the waist as well, but that seems to be much slower than the build-up of my arms, shoulders and legs.

Sooner or later I am sure that there won't be enough fat in my arms and legs to support the workout that I am doing. What happens if there is not enough calories to "burn"?

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Originally Posted by The_Godfather

I use optimum nutrition's whey. I get a 10lb bag for like 50$. Muscle milk is alright stuff, but there is better out there. My favorite shake is a mixture of whey, milk, and oatmeal. Great for packing on mass.

My diet isn't something most people who aren't looking to get big should do. Loads of milk, oatmeal, tuna, pb sandwhiches, pastas, chicken, protein shakes, cottage cheese, mcdonalds, and whatever is within reach to fill my calorie quota.

You using any supplements for fat burn? I know of some good ones, I'm looking into something for when I cut off my fat around winter time.

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I'm not really wanting to bulk up (and honestly, it takes some good supplementation and eating lots of calories for women to bulk anyway from what I hear...), but I've been using the Muscle Milk Light, just a scoop (which is half of a "recommended" serving) with yogurt--as a sort of meal replacement. It tastes good, which is a plus--and it makes my yogurt/berries meal fill me up and keep me from being hungry until my next meal three hours later. I've had some NASTY generic whey before and there's no way I can tolerate a bad texture/taste. I haven't tried making an actual shake with it yet--but I bought some skim milk to try it out :)

Not really using any supplements for fat burn--mostly just eating clean and keeping most of my carbs coming from fruit/veggies. Once I get back on the right track with my exercise program, it involves weights and HITT 3 days/week and then some general low-intensity cardio stuff 2 days/week. I just need to get my schedule in order--and those things seem to be working for me so far. I'm always a little leery of any supplement that claims it can burn fat all by itself. What are you thinking of taking?

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Originally Posted by AkivaSmith

At what point will I need to worry about calorie intake?

Right now I am converting soft tissue in my legs, shoulders and arms to muscle. I have lost a little fat around the waist as well, but that seems to be much slower than the build-up of my arms, shoulders and legs.

Sooner or later I am sure that there won't be enough fat in my arms and legs to support the workout that I am doing. What happens if there is not enough calories to "burn"?

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Well--I guess it depends on your goals? If you want to build muscle, you should eat at or above your "maintenance" calories while working your muscles hard and if you're in weight-loss mode, you take your maintenance calories and subtract 500 to get your calories/day. To figure out your maintenance calorie needs (it's a good ballpark) you can use a calculator online: http://www.caloriecontrol.org/calcalsm.html is for men, and there's one for women on there, too.

You don't want to eat too many calories if you're trying to lose weight, but you don't want to eat too few, either. Make sure if you're exercising that you're getting enough to support that. Exercising on a 500 calorie deficit will be fine for weight loss, but doing so on a 1,000 calorie deficit is a little extreme.

It's actually borderline impossible to gain muscle while burning fat. Simply because you need a calorie excess to add muscle, and a calorie deficit to burn fat. Weight training while losing weight is key to preserving muscle however. And with a lower bodyfat the muscle you have will become more definied and look bigger. Steroids are about the only route that will burn fat and build muscle. Even juice works best in a calorie excess though.

I'm researching a few supplements right now. Testosterone levels decrease when your calories drop below maintenence so I'm probably going to stack a test booster with a good thermogenic to burn fat and keep the muscle loss low. There is also a new prohormone out that isn't liver toxic and burns fat supposedly while adding muscle, waiting on some user reviews of it before trying it. I'm going to make it to 230 naturally before throwing any compounds like that into my system. Prohormones and steroids are only for the people willing to know what they're doing and do it safely. And aside from what you may believe, they are very safe and side effects are minimal when used and not abused. 230 should only take another month and a half though.

There are a few universal truths to losing fat. Cardio, calorie deficit, and spacing out your meals. Anyone who knows what they're talking about will agree that not changing your diet and not doing cardio and simply taking a fat burner will give you mediocre results at best.

With my excess muscle the fat melts off real well. I basically like to be around 8-9% to where I have ab definition and striations on my pecs. My bodyfat is running higher then average because it's just what needs to be done to add the kind of mass I want in the shortest amount of time possible.

So back to my original question. Right now I'm burning fat. Eventually I will be making muscle without fat to burn. How will I know when I need to add more calories to my diet?

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Originally Posted by AkivaSmith

So back to my original question. Right now I'm burning fat. Eventually I will be making muscle without fat to burn. How will I know when I need to add more calories to my diet?

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When you want to start building muscle--that is, once you've burned all the fat you want to, then you'll add more calories. You'll want to find your maintenance calories and and eat above that while you're building muscle. I'm sorry if I'm not answering your question the right way, or if I'm being confusing. I don't meant to!